Scene in a Museum (2001)
Unlike After Vermeer and After Edward Hopper, Scene in a Museum does not directly refer to any one particular precedent, rather it was built around a snapshot that revealed some interesting relationships. The figure and some of the background are the only components to remain from the original photograph, though most of what has been re-photographed merely replaces the slightly out-of-focus originals: the statue of the crouching Venus, its plinth. The portrait bust in the background replaces a clean-shaven one and the placards were on the front of the plinth rather than the side. What had been inspiring about the original photograph, and had been the motor to my reworking of it, and has been maintained in the final image, is the relationships between the figures in the composition: the portrait in the background is looking at the woman, who is looking at the sculpture, which appears to be turning her head away from this gaze and in doing so looks at the viewer of the picture with an equivocal expression.
©copyright 2005 Nicholas Middleton